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Condom Week and New Partners
12th May 2008

Half the population doesn't always use condoms with new sexual partners

Almost half the population don’t always use a condom when with a new sexual partner, according to a MORI survey for the National AIDS Trust (NAT). In National Condom Week the NAT has called for a new culture of condom use in the UK.

People who have had a new sexual partner recently who used condoms were asked when, if at all, would they stop using condoms.

The good news is that
• a quarter say they would only stop using a condom once they and their partner have both been tested for HIV and other STIs, the one guaranteed way of knowing the state of your and your partner’s sexual health
• and a further 17 per cent say they would continue to always use a condom.

The bad news is that
• this leaves over half (53 percent) of people, who have put themselves at risk of sexually transmitted infection by stopping using condoms without both checking their sexual health.

1 in 5 don’t know condoms stop HIV
The survey also reveals disturbing gaps in knowledge of condoms in preventing HIV transmission during sex.
One in five (21 per cent) didn’t know that HIV can be transmitted between a man and a woman who don’t use a condom and over a quarter (26 per cent) don’t know that HIV can be transmitted between two men who don’t use a condom.

Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of the National AIDS Trust, said;

“In National Condom Week the British public need a wake-up call on condom use. Too many people don’t know the basic facts on how condoms prevent a sexually transmitted infection such as HIV.

Too many people are inconsistent in how they use condoms and too many people give up on condoms in a relationship without a health check-up, thus possibly harming their health or that of their sexual partner. We need to educate the whole population in the importance of condoms. “

The National AIDS Trust is calling on the Government to introduce;

• condom use as an essential part of comprehensive, compulsory sex and relationships education in all schools
• condom advertising on TV and radio before the 9 o’clock watershed

Deborah Jack continues:

“The message is simple. ‘Use condoms. And enjoy your safer sex life.’”


source
Public Attitudes to HIV 2007
The survey was conducted by Ipsos MORI between 15th and 22nd November, 2007. A nationally representative quota sample of 1,981 adults aged 16 and over was interviewed throughout Great Britain. All interviews were conducted face-to-face in home and all data have been weighted to the known population profile of Great Britain.
Full results of the survey are available for download from http://www.nat.org.uk/Public-Perceptions-of-HIV